I’ve written something for The Atlantic‘s Object Lessons blog on the long (if potted!) history of horsemeat in America. A much fuller account is on offer in The Age of the Horse! During World War II food shortages, horse meat once again found its way to American tables, but the post-war backlash was rapid. “Horse …
Continue reading “From Taboo to “Ecoterrorism” – Horsemeat’s Troubled Political History in America”
The last working horses at a colliery in Britain retired – astonishingly – in 1999. Here’s a story from The Mirror about one of the other “last pit ponies”, Sparky: Since his retirement in 1988, Sparky has been taking it easy at the National Coal Mining Museum and has been looked after by Wendy and …
Ponymadbooklovers have a good information page on Golden Gorse, as does Jane Badger. The only pony I ever got to Christmas was an Exmoor “adopted” from the Moorland Mousie Trust in Devon, who work to preserve what is now sadly a rare breed. They have commissioned a hardback re-issue of the novel, complete with original …
There aren’t many web resources on Pat Smythe; it’s best to rely on the books she wrote at the height of her fame and her later autobiography, Leaping Life’s Fences. British Pathé has come up trumps however, and you can spend hours there looking for footage of all the showjumping greats from Stroller to Mr …
Thank you to Redwings Horse Sanctuary for a link to this wonderful 1962 clip from the East Anglian Film Archive, in which a donkey owner explains how his beasties can predict the weather.
Kudos to Horse Soldier whose excellent blog I just discovered. If the video leaves you curious, there’s a full website dedicated to the mare here.
Yesterday’s post led me to this wonderful Pathé footage of Marion Coakes on the super pony, Stroller. Look how pleased he is with himself! That’s 14.1 hands of Olympic-silver-medal-winning Connemara pride. More on his record at Showjumping Nostalgia.
Yes, those are sections of concrete pipeline with a plank on top – a cross country fence at the Rome Olympics in 1960. From Pat Smythe’s Jumping Around the World (Cassell).
Beautiful horse racing slideshow from the New York Times archives.
The Turkmen president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, is launching an annual national show for the famous Akhal Teke horses, says the BBC. Turkmenistan is the only former Soviet state in Central Asia where eating horse meat is strictly taboo. The national competition will also include an award for the best carpet featuring the horse, the best “holiday …
